Justice Denied In Massachusetts by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Let us abandon then our gardens and go home And sit in the sitting-room Shall the larkspur blossom or the corn grow under this cloud? Sour to the fruitful seed Is the cold earth under this cloud, Fostering quack and weed, we have marched upon but cannot conquer; We have bent the blades of our hoes against the stalks of them.
Let us go home, and sit in the sitting room. Not in our day Shall the cloud go over and the sun rise as before, Beneficent upon us Out of the glittering bay, And the warm winds be blown inward from the sea Moving the blades of corn With a peaceful sound.
Forlorn, forlorn, Stands the blue hay-rack by the empty mow. And the petals drop to the ground, Leaving the tree unfruited. The sun that warmed our stooping backs and withered the weed uprooted— We shall not feel it again. We shall die in darkness, and be buried in the rain.
What from the splendid dead We have inherited — Furrows sweet to the grain, and the weed subdued — See now the slug and the mildew plunder. Evil does overwhelm The larkspur and the corn; We have seen them go under.
Let us sit here, sit still, Here in the sitting-room until we die; At the step of Death on the walk, rise and go; Leaving to our children's children the beautiful doorway, And this elm, And a blighted earth to till With a broken hoe.